War With Iran: Foreign Policy Genius or A New Forever War?

Summary

Louder with Crowder | "War With Iran: Foreign Policy Genius or A New Forever War?"

Date: March 2, 2026
Host: Steven Crowder
Guests/Co-hosts: Josh Firestein, Lane

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the rapidly escalating conflict between the United States and Iran, following major U.S. strikes and the death of Iran's Supreme Leader. The panel unpacks the military operations, the justifications for U.S. involvement, implications for regional and global stability, media narratives, and ongoing domestic debates. They also break down public reactions, discuss notable critics and alternative viewpoints, and infuse their analysis with the show's signature irreverent banter.

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Key Segments & Discussion Points

1. Opening & Setting the Table

[03:21]

• Crowder reviews the packed news cycle: U.S. strikes on Iran, Shia LaBeouf's controversial comments after a Mardi Gras arrest, and a pending Trump speech from the White House.
• Tone: Lighthearted jabs (“no homo,” “good to be here is to love you”), prepping for a heavier main topic.

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2. Comic Relief: Shia LaBeouf’s Interview

[05:53 – 12:44]

• The crew riffs on Shia LaBeouf's bizarre interview remarks about masculinity, homophobia, Catholic faith, and even gang membership.
• Memorable moments:
  • “Big gay people are scary to me, bro.” – Shia LaBeouf ([05:58])
  • “I'm not Mel Gibson... I'm in a full blown love affair with Jesus.” – Shia LaBeouf ([08:41])
  • Panel quips about biblical interpretations, celebrity meltdowns, and absurd pop culture intersections.
  • Joke about LaBeouf as the new “Shiatollah” of Iran.

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3. Austin Shooting Discussion & Public Preparedness

[13:04 – 18:03]

• Transition to a somber note: a shooting in Austin by a suspect reportedly expressing pro-Islamist or pro-Iranian sentiments.
• Crowder encourages preparedness—not paranoia—including awareness, legal firearm carry, and life-saving skills like CPR.
• “It’s time to be prepared... There are a lot of people that came over the border during the Biden administration... that may want to do us harm.” – Crowder ([15:41])

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4. U.S. Strikes on Iran: Updates, Justifications, and Reactions

[18:03 – 20:32]

• Crowder provides an update: Operation Epic Fury, death of Iran's Supreme Leader, hundreds reported dead including much of Iran’s command structure.
• “The ayatollah is dead. That was confirmed over the weekend. Also, 554 is the estimate coming out of Iran right now.” – Crowder ([20:27])
• Panel mocks conspiratorial and anti-Semitic interpretations of U.S. foreign policy motives.

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5. The Debate: Is this a New Forever War or Foreign Policy Genius?

[21:27 – 28:55]

• Lane & Crowder reject simplistic pro- or anti-war binaries, laying out the need for clear objectives and criticizing both pro-intervention and blanket “it's for the Jews” rhetoric.
• Crowder calls out pundits like Dave Smith for calling Trump a “traitor” instead of articulating complex critique ([24:01]).
• Trump’s partial address: confirmation of further military action, commemoration of U.S. casualties, assertion of strong—if purposely vague—objectives.
  • “Combat operations continue at this time... until all of our objectives are achieved.” – President Trump ([24:58])

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6. Iran & Proxy Response / Regional Escalation

[29:50 – 34:23]

• Discussion of Iran’s retaliatory strikes: wide swath of targets across the Gulf, including U.S. bases, allied infrastructure, and Saudi oil refineries.
• Saudi response: shift from neutrality to solidarity against Iran ([32:14]).
• Lane: “That 'do it for the Jews' thing kind of falls apart, especially since... Saudi Arabia was pushing this attack too.” ([32:50])
• Warning against misinformation: panel cautions listeners about viral pictures/footage during fog-of-war media coverage.

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7. Explaining the U.S. Rationale for Action against Iran

[36:46 – 48:35]

Crowder/Lane lay out three key American interests:

• Nuclear Program: Iran was rapidly enriching uranium; U.S. offered “free nuclear energy forever,” Iran refused ([39:33]).
• Ballistic Missiles: Preemptive strike to reduce missile launch capabilities, reduce risk to U.S./allies ([42:22]).
• State-Sponsored Terrorism: Iran funds groups (Hezbollah, Taliban, Houthis, Hamas) directly targeting American and allied interests ([44:13]).
• Argument: Prefer to “solve the problem earlier than later.”
• Risks of JCPOA (“bad deal”—sunset provisions, lack of enforcement).
• Comparison to North Korea's “slow walk” to a nuclear arsenal and the dangers of further delay.

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8. Listener Criticisms & Media Narratives

[48:35 – 53:14]

• Address “all for Israel” and “illegal war” criticisms.
• Trump speech underscores rationale: preventing a regime that “raises terrorist armies” from possessing nuclear arms ([45:10]).
• Explicit rejection of narratives that U.S. lives are lost only for Israel:
  • “By the way, anybody on X right now saying, those people died for Israel... go screw yourselves. They died defending and making sure that this country was safe.” – Crowder ([56:07])
• Lane references the proverb of “planting trees for future generations”: honoring military sacrifice even if benefits are years away ([56:45]).

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9. Crowder’s “Live Report” & Further Discussion

[61:41 – 75:10]

• Crowder joins via video call, recaps morning ride-along with ICE, joking about the array of criminals encountered.
• Further analysis:
  • Admits “there is certain information we don’t know, and rightfully shouldn’t.” Praises speed/decisiveness of U.S. action.
  • Acknowledges legitimate policy debate but slams “war for the Jews” takes as myopic—reminds listeners of vast Iranian diaspora supporting regime change.
  • Quips about U.S. executive power abroad vs. at home: “For better or worse, when it relates to foreign policy, that's as close as the President actually does have to monarch powers.”
• Lampoons Iranian official succession crisis and teases forthcoming ride-along segment (“child pornographer” ICE bust anecdote).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I get scared, bro. I’m sorry. If that’s homophobic, then I…then I’m that.”
  — Shia LaBeouf ([06:14])

• “It’s time to be prepared... Not being paranoid... Carry [your firearm] responsibly, and practice with it.”
  — Steven Crowder ([15:41])

• “If Israel’s interests happen to align with the United States’ interests, that we’re going to war for the Jews... You’re taking your brain and just putting it off to the side.”
  — Crowder ([22:08])

• “To just say, well, this is going to be... Iraq 2.0, a 20-year war—you don’t know that.”
  — Lane ([23:20])

• “Tell us what those objectives are.”
  — Lane ([25:48])

• “They died defending and making sure that this country was safe.”
  — Crowder ([56:07])

• “If you're a dictator in the world right now, you must be going like, shit, can you do that to me?”
  — Steven Crowder ([64:43])

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Thematic Takeaways

Questions & Cautions Expressed

• What are the U.S. objectives? Both panel and listeners want clarity before more blood or treasure is spent.
• Is this inevitably a “forever war”? Panel concedes risk but refutes fatalism.
• How to separate legitimate policy debate from conspiratorial or bigoted talking points? Panel insists on challenging ideas, not scapegoating groups.

Panel’s Perspective on Reactions

• Censure of anti-Semitic or “America-last” narratives
• Rebuttal of “illegal war” language based on historical context (1979 Iranian Revolution as enduring state of hostility)
• Admits reasonable skepticism about duration and success—urges focus on principle and facts, not ideology.

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Important Timestamps

• [03:21] – Opening on Iran strikes and news cycle
• [05:53 – 12:44] – Shia LaBeouf interview parody/discussion
• [13:04 – 18:03] – Austin shooting, preparedness talk
• [18:03 – 20:32] – Operation Epic Fury update/death of Ayatollah
• [24:58 – 26:33] – President Trump’s White House speech (first segment)
• [29:50 – 34:23] – Iran’s counterstrikes/regional escalation
• [36:46 – 48:35] – U.S. rationale for action against Iran (nukes, missiles, terrorism)
• [45:10] – Trump: “We cannot allow a nation that raises terrorist armies to possess such weapons.”
• [56:07] – Crowder rebuffs “died for Israel” claims
• [61:41 – 75:10] – Crowder live call-in, further analysis, ICE segment preview

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Final Thoughts

The episode delivers a mix of serious analysis, tongue-in-cheek humor, direct engagement with current rumors/controversies, and patriotic rhetoric. Crowder and his team broadly support decisive action against Iran but emphasize the need for clear endgames and honest discourse about costs, risks, and motivations, rejecting both reflexive hawkishness and reflexive blame-shifting. They challenge the audience to scrutinize all evidence, avoid conspiracy, and not confuse skepticism with cynicism or bigotry.

Transcript

[Lane]

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[Steven Crowder]

Brush and rinse twice daily to protect against plaque. Keep gums tight and enjoy long lasting gum health. Strong gums healthy smile. Good morning and welcome to the LineUp live on Rumble, 11:00am Eastern Time. Bookmark it every single day and join us today. We are obviously going to be talking about the strikes in Iran over the weekend and the ensuing conflict there. Also Shia LaBeouf. Apparently he feels about gays much like the Ayatollah used to. Ha. He's dead. Not going to be around anymore. And President Trump is going to give some remarks here in just a few minutes from the White House. We don't know if that'll be in the next three or four minutes or the next 15 minutes, but when that happens, we will go live to him and cover any updates for you. Make sure that you stay with us. We have a lot of information to get through and a lot of people to expose as people who simply hate America and will take every opportunity to dogpile even when our troops are in harm's way.

[Josh Firestein]

Hello, Chase Vanguard. Too big to fail. How can I help you? Oh, yeah, sure. We can help you refinance your house. How's 28% sound? Oh, well, maybe your kids shouldn't have gotten so sick. Maybe you go tell them to eat one of those blue popsicles or something. Okay, well, best I can do is 27.5%. And to be honest, you sound like a very selfish person. Is that really how you want your family to remember you? Oh, it's just you and the kid, huh? Well, my heart goes out to you and yeah, that's very sad. So I think I'd be willing to give you 29%. That's too big to fail. Alright, sounds great. Yeah. Yeah, sounds great. And hey, maybe your son and you can learn a lesson from all this.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah.

[Josh Firestein]

Yeah. All right, well, payment is due at the end of the month or you, sir, will be setting a table for one.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

All right.

[Josh Firestein]

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[Steven Crowder]

Good morning for Those of you expecting the sip, no. No sip for you. Also, this is really, really hot still, and I don't want to actually burn my mouth in the process, so I'm going to avoid that for right now. Like I said, we've got a very good show for you today. A lot of information on Iran giving the updates and some of the justifications dealing with some of the issues that we all, I think, have reasonable questions about with any kind of a war or, I don't know, not war, depending on who you ask in this process. Also, the death of the ayatollah, potentially having a little bit of a closing time for that. And then Shia LaBeouf, I didn't realize he was still a thing, but then he got arrested over Mardi Gras, and I'm like, okay, he's back in the news, and apparently he's got some real deep thoughts on homosexuals. And so we'll get to all of that. We'll have some fun along the way. Yeah, exactly. Well, let's not ask questions that we really don't want to have the answers to, nor pictures of. By the way, how do you like my chair over there? Mr. Josh Firestein. How are you?

[Josh Firestein]

It'll do. It'll suit me.

[Steven Crowder]

It'll do.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

Yes.

[Steven Crowder]

Okay.

[Josh Firestein]

Yeah.

[Steven Crowder]

So you're gonna be Friday and Saturday, March 20th and 21st, at the Summit Comedy Club in. It's happening in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

[Josh Firestein]

That's right.

[Steven Crowder]

Make sure you guys grab tickets and go see Josh.

[Josh Firestein]

Three shows.

[Steven Crowder]

We'll have some fun. Yeah.

[Josh Firestein]

Hopefully Iran's over by then.

[Steven Crowder]

Yes, that would be great. 3 weeks ish from now and know him, you love him. Lane the Brain sitting over here in third chair. How are you, sir?

[Lane]

They know me. I don't know if they love me. Well, they know me, you know, that's objectionable to some, I suppose, but, you

[Steven Crowder]

know, good to be here is to love you.

[Lane]

Always happy to be participating.

[Steven Crowder]

No homo. So, hey, make sure. We want to get some really good chats, too, once we go into Rumble Premium mug club. Rumble Premium is mud club. So make sure that you guys have some. Some good questions for us. Maybe some things that you have seen. But like I said, President Trump right now. Go ahead and bring up cnn. You can see their gathering for his speech, his update here in just a minute. When they go, we will bring you guys some commentary on that for the first few minutes and just see what direction it takes. And then we'll be monitoring it for the rest of the show. But we need a little Levity. It's been a pretty heavy weekend for anybody who's been paying attention to what's going on around the world. So, you know, we go to Shia LaBeouf and. No, not in Transformers, though that would be fantastic if it was number. He was actually sitting down for an interview following his New Orleans arrest. And we got some answers. We got a lot of answers from Shia, specifically. First off, on gay dudes, I don't

[Shia LaBeouf]

think I have a drinking problem. I think I have a different problem, and I'm going to address it.

[Steven Crowder]

What's that problem?

[Shia LaBeouf]

I think I have a small man complex. Some kind of Napoleonic. I don't know what it is. I'll be honest with you. Big gay people are scary to me. When I'm, like, standing by myself and dudes are nice to me, touching my leg, I get scared.

[Steven Crowder]

I get scared, bro.

[Shia LaBeouf]

I'm sorry. If that's homophobic, then I. Then I'm. That.

[Steven Crowder]

Does that happen a lot?

[Shia LaBeouf]

No, it just happened one time recently. Well, that's why I'm. I got arrested.

[Steven Crowder]

Oh, okay.

[Lane]

His sweater goes.

[Shia LaBeouf]

So you were sort of being groped and surrounded. I'm not going to say that because my lawyer said, oh, dude,

[Lane]

I. I

[Shia LaBeouf]

am wrong for touching anyone ever. And that's the end of my statement on this.

[Steven Crowder]

Sounds good. Cool.

[Shia LaBeouf]

You know, I'm good with you be gay over there, though. Don't be gay in my lap, personal space type stuff, you know, which gets. It gets weird.

[Steven Crowder]

It's Mardi Gras.

[Shia LaBeouf]

That's why, bro, I was drunk and it's Mardi Gras, so all of. Everything I'm saying is nonsense. It's Mardi Gras.

[Steven Crowder]

You know, you definitely have a drinking problem. What are you talking about?

[Josh Firestein]

It sounds like he wants. I don't think he has a problem as an excuse.

[Lane]

Yeah, like, that's his defense.

[Josh Firestein]

Hey, man, it's Marty, dude.

[Steven Crowder]

It's. Well, it's Mardi Gras and I was drunk, but I repeat myself. It's Mardi Gras. It's totally fine.

[Josh Firestein]

If that.

[Steven Crowder]

Oh, my gosh.

[Josh Firestein]

That's a problem.

[Lane]

Sign me up.

[Steven Crowder]

Is this a bit. Like, this is not him acting right?

[Lane]

No. People just don't know how to handle real, authentic, cool dudes anymore.

[Josh Firestein]

This is the real Peanut Butter Falcon, right?

[Lane]

Apparently, before he went on his homophobic rant, he was giving unsolicited acting advice to people at the bar, which is.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah, well, he was hammered, so. And it was Marty Gro. You just have to keep that in mind. And also lots of Gay dudes around him, apparently. What bar were you at anyway? He also got. He also got into the Bible and just wait until you spot it. Martin Luther.

[Shia LaBeouf]

I know. I'm deep off into the Bible. I know what the Bible says about homosexuality.

[Steven Crowder]

What does it say?

[Lane]

Nah,

[Steven Crowder]

a long time ago. Is that a quote?

[Shia LaBeouf]

Do whatever you want with the text. It's not my business. You know, I'm a traditional Catholic. That's okay. And what's the difference between a traditional

[Josh Firestein]

Catholic and let's say a more progressive Christian?

[Steven Crowder]

I really.

[Shia LaBeouf]

I really. With the Bible.

[Steven Crowder]

You believe in hell and stuff? Yeah. Who do you think's down there?

[Shia LaBeouf]

Who's down there? Martin Luther.

[Josh Firestein]

The man who wrote the Protestant.

[Shia LaBeouf]

Martin Luther. Martin Luther is there? Yeah.

[Steven Crowder]

He's got the special hair.

[Shia LaBeouf]

He's gone for dying.

[Steven Crowder]

The divinity of the Pope.

[Shia LaBeouf]

There's a whole lot we could talk about this. This will be the whole rest of the interview. I don't want to do that either. I'm not Mel Gibson. I'm not trying to be out here doing that either. God bless you. I love you too.

[Steven Crowder]

I'm not that guy either.

[Shia LaBeouf]

I'm not angry with my Christianity like that. I just really believe in what I believe in. I'm not trying to proselytize nobody. I'm not trying to hold no traditional Catholic line. I'm not some weirdo like that tight ass. No, none of that, bro. I'm on my relationship. I'm in a full blown love affair with Jesus.

[Steven Crowder]

Sounds like it. And by the way, we did some checking ourselves and it turns out he's not lying.

[Lane]

That was in my service this Sunday.

[Steven Crowder]

Little known text that's not often quoted, by the way. Download the Rumble app. That's the best way to stay in touch with us and know when we are streaming live. Follow Stephen there to make sure that you see every single show.

[Lane]

I.

[Steven Crowder]

By the way he's sitting and the short shorts that he's wearing, I don't think those are completely out of style or anything, but it's also this giant man spread going on. I'm like, I wonder why gay dudes. Excuse me. Approached you.

[Lane]

Nah, dude, he's just. That's a lot of aura that he's dropping out right there. You just don't get it. You just don't know how to mog.

[Steven Crowder]

I. I do nothing but mog. I just didn't know that I was mogging. Mostly frame mogging because I'm giant.

[Josh Firestein]

You're not much of a mogger.

[Steven Crowder]

What?

[Lane]

No, I wouldn't Put you next to the ASU frat leader, that's all.

[Steven Crowder]

Okay. When he choked on a piece of pizza. I haven't done that.

[Lane]

But we know way too much about this.

[Steven Crowder]

The few young people in the audience have left. Yeah, they actually have. Get out of here, bro. You guys are gay. Shut up. Anyway, this is not where I thought this conversation was going with Mr. Elleboeuf. He is na bro on gays. And he loves the Bible, except hates Martin Luther. And then we get into his gang membership.

[Shia LaBeouf]

I got bar mitzvahed. I wasn't in that shit at all. Is also that you're like, down from a hood in LA. It's true. Can you elaborate? Harpy's 13. My key holder is conejo. It happened through a film. I was prepping a movie. I asked if I could. He told me what the requirements were. I said yes. We love each other. All of us. We are all. Most of us fathers. Most of us are trying to live good lives. Most of us are God led.

[Josh Firestein]

Did you have to get like jumped in or anything?

[Shia LaBeouf]

Nothing silly like that. No, come on. When I joined, it was sort of. I was 36 and it was like they had already done all the rowdy for so many years that I'm kind of the T shirt salesman.

[Steven Crowder]

I feel like we're going to start seeing him do videos with knives, much like Britney Spears.

[Lane]

I feel like we're misreading the situation. I feel like he is. We might have the comeback of the ages.

[Steven Crowder]

Oh, really? Him and Terrence Howard both, huh? They've solved math.

[Lane]

Don't ever compare those two.

[Steven Crowder]

He sounds like Terrence Howard in a lot of ways right now. Am I wrong?

[Lane]

Terrence Howard said he solved math.

[Steven Crowder]

Yes, I understand that, but he also said he's. What?

[Lane]

Do you disagree with that he said?

[Steven Crowder]

It's not that I disagree with what he said. Correct. Because nah is okay. A really good summation of what the Bible thinks about homosexuality. Fine. Martin Luther is not in hell.

[Lane]

Yes, I would agree with that. I would agree with you on disagreeing with that.

[Steven Crowder]

And I too am afraid of very large gay men. So I guess. I guess it's fine.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

Really.

[Josh Firestein]

And I'm. I'm.

[Steven Crowder]

From you, Nick.

[Josh Firestein]

I'm a T shirt salesman.

[Steven Crowder]

That's where I think he's a little crazy and he's stringing thoughts together. But I feel like he's right on the edge of losing it.

[Lane]

Well, get him in a new Transformers with Megan Fox and all will be right with the world.

[Steven Crowder]

I really don't.

[Josh Firestein]

Yeah, what are the Transformers? Megan Fox's Kids?

[Lane]

Oh, no.

[Steven Crowder]

How much crazy can you fit on a film set? More than meets the eye. Anyway, great, great callback. It was really good. Well, you know, listen, what do you think he'll do next? And do you think his manager will ever, ever, ever let him sit down to do another interview?

[Lane]

Maybe we should book him on this show.

[Steven Crowder]

Think he has a manager?

[Josh Firestein]

Yeah, we could get Shia LaBeouf.

[Steven Crowder]

Yes, but do we want.

[Lane]

Yes, we absolutely want Shia Chat.

[Steven Crowder]

How did the interviewer stay still and, like, relatively silent because.

[Josh Firestein]

Well, Andrew, he's really good at that. He's a pro.

[Lane]

Yeah.

[Steven Crowder]

He's been doing this for years, so nothing surprises him. He's just kind of like, okay, all

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

right, roll with it.

[Steven Crowder]

I know you're afraid of big gay men. Does that happen to you often? It's a really good fear.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

Okay.

[Josh Firestein]

They were good questions. He was like.

[Steven Crowder]

No, he was.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

Yeah.

[Josh Firestein]

He goes, who's down there? Like, right away, who's down there?

[Steven Crowder]

I don't think. Yeah, I don't think I could do that. Anyway, so make sure, guys. Thanks to our sponsors, American Financing. Make sure you start today and you may be able to delay two mortgage payments. American financing.net or call 1-800-974-6500. NMLS 1-82334. I feel like you have to say the last part a little faster to kind of be, you know, in with it. NMLS 182 0. Okay. All right. We have covered our base there to make sure that they don't get sued, not necessarily us, but they tell us that they'll, you know, they'll hurt us. Speaking of getting hurt, I want to, on a serious note, like, we're going to transition a little bit. President Trump isn't speaking just yet, but as soon as he does, like I said, we will go and check out his comments there. There was a shooting in Austin, Texas, and it was one of those weekends where you just kind of knew something was going to happen. It's not like you have to be a genius to figure that out. With the bombing of Iran, I don't know how you guys found out about it. I woke up and was on my way to the range to do some training, and I saw it on the way and I was listening to it on my drive all the way there, and it just. You kind of feel like a bit in shock when you're hearing stuff like that. Like you're kind of processing what's going on. You're trying to figure out what reports are accurate, what's not, what's actually happening as stuff is coming in and what kind of damage has been done, who's been actually taken out, and some of the retaliation, which we'll get to in a minute, didn't make a lot of sense to me at the time. Why did you admonish me there? It's just natural for you to admonish me. When you make a mistake, you admonish me. And the first thing that really entered my head after kind of getting over the shock of all of that is like, okay, be prepared, because there may be people in the United States and around the world that will carry out terrorist attacks in the name of defending the Iranian regime, the Ayatollah, and also in the name of Islam. And unfortunately, that turned out to be very, very true. At least it appears that way. I think the. The gentleman piece of dirt that carried out the shooting in Austin had a shirt on. Yeah, no, no. I know. I was trying to do it in, like, a derogatory way, but I felt like it didn't quite.

[Josh Firestein]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Steven Crowder]

You know what I mean? It was like almost a little bit of sarcasm there.

[Josh Firestein]

That scumbag.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah, that piece of crap that shot people in Austin had, I think, Property of Allah shirt on. There's been reports that there was an undershirt that had more stuff on it. There was a Quran, I think, either in the car or around him at some point. I don't remember all the details, but

[Josh Firestein]

really, it was all covered in bo.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah, well, of course. But the biggest thing that I wanted to tell you is, like, be prepared. I leaned over to my wife in church and said, listen, don't be afraid. Don't be anxious. Just have a little bit of heightened awareness. Be kind of aware of what's going on around you. If you have a firearm and you are in a place, I hate to even have to say this, where you are legally allowed to carry it. Carry it. And not just carry it, but make sure you understand how to access your firearm in a situation not standing still, perfectly at a range where you actually have to pull it out and defend your family. Move your family out of the way. Move yourself. Understand what you're going to do in certain situations. Again, this is not being paranoid or filled with anxiety or fear, but it's time to be prepared, because there are a lot of people that came over the border during the Biden administration and before that may want to do us harm as a part of this. And this is not something that we're just Making up, I think. Was it Hassan who said or not? Not Hasan, what's his name, who said that we can't attack Iran because of the sleeper cell people here?

[Lane]

I mean, that's, that's kind of a across the board argument. I think it was Robert Barnes that I was responding to on that one,

[Steven Crowder]

but I figured it was a leftist, like crazy lunatic, but it was Robert Barnes.

[Lane]

It's just this impetus of putting default or putting the responsibility on Americans for everything, which essentially takes agency away from everybody else. And it just. We'll get into it more, but it's just a really stupid criticism.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah, absolutely. So moral of the story, be prepared. And prayers absolutely go out to the families of those that have been affected so far by that. Not just here, but abroad as well. And obviously for our soldiers and their families.

[Josh Firestein]

So it's a good reminder too that, you know, if you don't know how to do cpr, you should probably learn. There's other life saving.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah.

[Josh Firestein]

Skills you can learn, but CPR for sure. I, I saw video, I did too, of the, you know, the immediate aftermath. The police, Austin police, it was 6th Street. So they're very close.

[Steven Crowder]

They're right there. Within one minute.

[Josh Firestein]

They. Within. Yeah, they were great. So shout out to Austin PD for the great work. But there were people on site also. There was a woman doing cpr, a man and a wife beater trying to help out. Help out. Those skills are, you know, priceless.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah.

[Josh Firestein]

It can be seconds.

[Steven Crowder]

So. Yeah. I don't.

[Lane]

Get yourself a class. Get your family a class.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah, I don't imagine that you can beat a minute for a response time.

[Josh Firestein]

It's not just either, by the way. It's, you know, if there's ever an emergency, you know, you're out in the lake, somebody falls off a jet ski or, you know, somebody falls off a hill or, you know.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah.

[Josh Firestein]

Might need CPR some days to learn it.

[Steven Crowder]

Absolutely. But also carry and be ready to use your firearm responsibly if necessary. Okay. So let's go to Iran. And we, we saw a number of this conversation happened before. Right. You guys remember this was World War three prior to this, when we struck and took out nuclear capability or, sorry, the enrichment capability. I say nuclear because it's like the only country in the history of the world that's ever gotten to 60% and not pursued a bomb. If they don't actually pursue a bomb. The enrichment capability was.

[Lane]

Nuclear capability. Wasn't weapons grade.

[Steven Crowder]

Wasn't there yet. Right. And so there's some valid criticisms of how we approach the situation with Iran. But then there's also some people on the, you know, right and left that are giving these childish temper tantrums about why the United States should sit on its hands and just trust that the Iranians are going to honor their word and we should have just negotiated with them in the first place. We'll get to all of that. But for those of you who haven't been paying much attention to this, I'm going to give you a quick update this weekend, Donald Trump, president of the United States, launched Operation Epic Fury on Iran.

[Lane]

Boy, beautiful.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

Saddam.

[Lane]

Boy.

[Steven Crowder]

That's supposed to be China using lasers to shoot down incoming rockets. Is that what the.

[Lane]

That was in Israel. That was in Haifa.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah.

[Lane]

So what would China be using.

[Steven Crowder]

No, no, I'm sorry, I meant to say Israel using.

[Lane]

Oh, yes.

[Steven Crowder]

Not China. Does it.

[Josh Firestein]

China.

[Lane]

And we made sure not to use any video game footage.

[Steven Crowder]

That's good.

[Josh Firestein]

It's everybody ready?

[Lane]

That's.

[Josh Firestein]

It's very uniquely us thing.

[Steven Crowder]

So obviously there's extensive damage. You can see from CNN's coverage and everybody else right now that there are scenes unfolding around the Middle east of damage, obviously in Iran and other places. We'll get to a list of some of those, but let me just give you a quick rundown. The ayatollah is dead. That was confirmed over the weekend. Also, 554 is the estimate coming out of Iran right now as well.

[Lane]

Including most of his entire command structure.

[Steven Crowder]

Yes, exactly.

[Lane]

Yeah.

[Josh Firestein]

But I heard that Iran has already filled their briefly open position of supreme leader with the Shiatullah LaBeouf.

[Shia LaBeouf]

Big gay people are scary to me, bro.

[Steven Crowder]

You could be Jewish over there.

[Lane]

Just do it.

[Steven Crowder]

I don't know that I disagree with. Don't be Jewish on my lap either. Like, that's my lap, bro. Still, I mean, it sounds like something. Nothing silly like that Natalie Portman could

[Lane]

be Jewish on my lap.

[Steven Crowder]

Wow. No. Whoa.

[Lane]

I'm just. I'm serious.

[Steven Crowder]

Like.

[Josh Firestein]

Yeah. I'm just saying.

[Lane]

What a Queen Amidala.

[Steven Crowder]

What a shill.

[Lane]

You wouldn't get.

[Steven Crowder]

Where's your 7,000 shekels, Lane?

[Lane]

I would do it for free.

[Josh Firestein]

I'm just saying, bro. Jewish people scare me.

[Steven Crowder]

Big Jewish people on my leg, bro. Getting into a fight.

[Josh Firestein]

If that makes me anti Semitic, then I'm.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

That

[Steven Crowder]

again, providing a little levity never hurts. I think he might be Jewish.

[Josh Firestein]

Catholic.

[Steven Crowder]

He's Catholic. Yeah, he's Catholic. I was about to say. What are you talking about?

[Lane]

Did he say his bar mitzvah?

[Steven Crowder]

He said, I'm not, I'm not down with that. Like, I don't understand this person. Over 740 missiles and 850 drones were launched by Iran. And look, like we said, questioning the strikes and the motivations, the mission, the defined kind of outcomes that we are seeking, that's totally fine. Nobody has a problem with somebody going on and saying, hey, I want to know how this ends. I want to know what we're trying to accomplish. I want to know, if it's not a war, what is it? If it's not regime change, what is it? If it's not boots on the ground, what is it? If it's, it's not a war for Israel, what is it? Like, those are fine questions to ask, but please don't get trapped in this logic of if Israel's interests happen to align with the United States interests, that we're going to war for the Jews. And that's what I see more and more and more of. And it basically, you're taking your brain and just putting it off to the side and saying, I can't think about this logically. I'm just going to go with the Jews control everything. And therefore the United States is getting into a war. And I've seen the document. There's these seven countries that they're going to take out or six countries and whatever the number was. And Iran was always on the list. Really. It didn't need to be a list that was created to understand that Iran was going to be a problem that needed to be taken care of at some point. There are different ways that you can take care of that. Through negotiations, through agreements, through targeted strikes, like we've done before in the past, and obviously on this occasion, something like this, we've tried a lot of different ways to deal with Iran, the largest state funder and sponsor of terrorism in the world. Without Iran, the Middle east pretty much looks like a much better place for a lot of people. It's not fixed, but these guys are a thorn in everybody's side. And it was a problem that would have to be dealt with. Now let's go back to President Trump. Oh, go ahead.

[Lane]

Yeah. Well, the one thing I wanted to add to this is we're by no means just sitting here and running the party line of everything Trump does is good.

[Steven Crowder]

Not at all.

[Lane]

If you oppose him, then you're not maga and you're. That's not what we're doing. What we're saying is there's valid criticisms to be had, namely that we need to know, we know what day one looks like. You need to tell us what the last day looks like. And nobody has made that clear yet. And the administration is incumbent to do that. But to just say, well, this is going to be, you know, Iraq 2.0. This is going to be a 20 year war. You don't know that any more than I know this is going to be just like Venezuela or, you know, the operations this summer. Yeah, but to pretend that the justifications are only because of the Jewish lobby or because of the Zionist. There's a million variables that you have to ignore. Yeah, or just be too stupid to understand to come to that conclusion.

[Steven Crowder]

I hate to say this, but that's a really good jumping off point to Dave Smith's tweet, Traitor. That's what he said about the President. You see the difference? You can say, hey, listen, we've been down this road before. We have spent many, many, many lives and trillions of dollars on wars in the Middle East. I feel like we were dragged into those wars by Israel for their purposes, not necessarily the purposes and the benefit of the American people in the United States. I want to make sure we're not doing that again. I want to make sure we understand how this ends and what our goals are and why we're doing this. Didn't say that. Said traitor tells me everything that I need to know. I think he's a smart guy that has some really stupid opinions on how the world actually works. Not living in a fantasy land where everybody just gets along because we signed a piece of paper and I can trust everybody to do their job. Not how it works in reality, unfortunately. President Trump yesterday, though, briefed the nation on our operations so far.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

Iran's formerly supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, is dead. This wretched and vile man had the blood of hundreds and even thousands of Americans on his hands and was responsible for the slaughter of countless thousands of innocent people all across many countries. The entire military command is gone as well, and many of them want to surrender into saving their lives. They want immunity. They're calling by the thousands. Combat operations continue at this time in full force and they will continue until all of our objectives are achieved. We have very strong objectives. They could have done something years ago, but they just couldn't get there.

[Lane]

So you should tell us what those are.

[Steven Crowder]

I know, right?

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

CENTCOM shared the news that three US Military service members have been killed in action. As one nation, we grieve for the true American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. Even as we continue the righteous mission for which they gave their lives, we pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families of the fallen. And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That's the way it is, likely be more, but we'll do everything possible where that won't be the case.

[Steven Crowder]

There you go. So that is a really good example of a couple of things that we've just talked about. One, tell us what those objectives are.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

Right.

[Steven Crowder]

We have the best objectives to that point.

[Josh Firestein]

CNN was reporting earlier that Pete Hegseth was going to be laying out those objectives in Arlington or might have already done it, had him on screen. I can't hear, but okay, perfect.

[Steven Crowder]

So if they do lay that out during the show, we'll bring that to you guys. So mission control, you guys make sure you're on top of that. The other part is really interesting to point out is that people stopped that clip at the place where he said there will be more. Right. Instead of playing the full clip of what he actually said, which we did. Now, we didn't play all of the speech, but to give you the context of that moment, he didn't just say there's likely going to be more dead.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

Boop.

[Steven Crowder]

Cut. And you go to cnn, Wolf Blitzer telling you president of the United States says more people will die. In fact, in this, of course, this conflict could produce more casualties. Unfortunately, we are now up from three to four US servicemen dead, 10 Israelis and five in Arab states as well.

[Lane]

And those Arabs would like, I assume they're ones allied with us or helping with us.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah, exactly. So that's unfortunate. But he said we're going to do everything that we can to minimize that. I just, I want to make sure you understand that I don't think that Donald Trump ever wants to do this ever. I think he wants to make sure that he has, he has no remote possibility of being forced into doing something much, much more dramatic later. I think he's willing to do small operations to make sure he can solve a problem instead of having to do incredibly large troops on the ground operations in these countries. So he added this on Truth Social. I've just been informed that we have destroyed and sunk nine Iranian naval ships. I didn't know they had nine. Some of them relatively large and important. We are going after the rest. They will soon be floating at the bottom of the sea also. Okay. You don't float if you're at the bottom of the sea. Listen, let's not split Hairs, they're at the bottom of the sea. That's all that really matters. In a different attack, we largely destroyed their naval headquarters. And this is, this is a part of Trump right now that we're about. You don't get from most people throughout history that are leading this country. He went on to say, other than that their navy's doing very well. President Donald J. Trump, he just, he takes the time to just dig in. Listen, if I was a, I mean,

[Josh Firestein]

he just compliment sandwich a little bit.

[Steven Crowder]

You guys are doing great.

[Lane]

He's negging.

[Steven Crowder]

You guys are still floating on the bottom. It's not quite on the bottom.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

Iran's beautiful fleet, mostly destroyed, but still doing very well.

[Steven Crowder]

Use some glass bottom boats to look at the ships in your fleet. I don't know if I was in service right now and I was being deployed and I was over there and I read that, I would be like, hell, yeah, that's my commander in chief. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I would love that. And so far, pardon me, allergies are still kind of a thing here in Texas. The response from Iran, their retaliatory strikes have hit a number of places that maybe you wouldn't think. But here's, here's a, here's a clip. What the hotel do wrong.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

Wow, wow, wow.

[Josh Firestein]

Another one.

[Lane]

Wow. They were targeting Andrew Tate's war room.

[Steven Crowder]

Just the matrix, bro.

[Josh Firestein]

Sounds like they're watching football.

[Steven Crowder]

That was a big one.

[Lane]

I mean, it's kind of the equivalent if you think about it.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

Oh,

[Steven Crowder]

yes. Oh my God. That's a bad one right there. Oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, obviously the strikes that resulted in loss of life, worse. I'm just saying there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of reason to do that. If you're Iran. Right. You're going to piss some people off that were basically staying out of the fight to a degree. So let me just run down a list really quickly of where they've hit. So in the uae, they've hit civilian infrastructure and also a French base in Bahrain, civilian infrastructure as well as U.S. 5th Fleet base. I believe that's the domed thing that

[Lane]

you think that's where the casualties occurred, if I'm correct.

[Steven Crowder]

Exactly. And I've heard reports that that was a very, very expensive forward looking radar. I don't know what not forward looking radar was. Some kind of an advanced warning radar system that we lost there. So that's obviously not, not good stuff at all. Like this is all very, very bad. Kuwait, US bases and the embassy. Qatar Aloudade airbase, International Airport natural gas facilities, what prompting Qatar to shut down their LNG production. Right. Immediately spiked gas prices and energy prices across Europe. I think by some somewhere is about 50%. I saw 50%, 55, 0% is what I saw. So maybe fact check that, guys. It's one of those things where you see it excessive.

[Lane]

I could be wrong, but that seems. I mean, because oil is only up about.

[Steven Crowder]

Oil's not up that much. Yeah, it was the LNG stuff.

[Lane]

So fact check most of the LNG there. A lot of it goes to Asia too. So it would have surprised me that that had that effect on European markets.

[Steven Crowder]

But they may just be getting scared. That happens, especially in France. They're like, hey, we need more nukes. We'll get to that. Saudi Arabia, they hit oil refineries and air bases. And the Saudi Arabia thing really, it just really baffles me. You can be pissed off in Saudi Arabia if you're Iran. I get that. Right. But they basically said we're just not going to do a whole lot about this. About a month ago, the United States can't use our airspace or anything like that. So just everybody chill.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

Right?

[Steven Crowder]

They didn't tell us not to do anything, but seemed like they were kind of hedging their bets a little bit. Well, you start bombing their infrastructure, Iran to Saudi Arabia. And now the Kingdom put this statement out. The Kingdom affirms its full solidarity with an unwavering support for the brotherly countries and its readiness to place all its capabilities at their disposal in support of any measures they may undertake. It also warns of the grave consequences resulting from the continued violation of state sovereignty and the principles of international law. I'm not sure they care a whole hell of a lot about international law.

[Lane]

No one cares about international law. It's a made up term.

[Steven Crowder]

Bombing our facilities.

[Lane]

It's nice to put in press releases, but that was before. Before they had been directly targeted also. So you can assume after this latest round of, you know, rogue attack from the regime that the Saudis are not going to be too happy. Especially you see later we have a clip. Didn't even know this. A few years ago, MBS referred to the Ayatollah as Hitler. So it's not like, again, I, Hitler with a beard. What does Israel get out of this that Saudi Arabia doesn't also directly get out of it? So right there, if you just look at that comparison, the do it for the Jews thing kind of falls apart. Especially since there's some reporting behind the scenes that Saudi Arabia was pushing this attack too.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah, exactly. So when I. I don't know about you, but when I saw that, I was like, what are they doing? What are they doing?

[Lane]

I don't think they know what they're doing. Well, unless they're just trying to commit terror to. To make these countries too scared to respond and step in, I feel like

[Steven Crowder]

it's going to have the exact opposite response where they're saying, okay, well, yeah, we thought it was a threat before, and we were happy to let Israel and the United States kind of deal with it, but now we're going to step into the fight because they've taken it to us, and so we have to. We have to join in. Now, that's always nice to hear, but unfortunately, in Kuwait, that resulted in some friendly fire with the three. Was it F15s? Yeah. That were shot down. Fortunately, it seems like everybody got out. But that's the viral picture of a guy who's on his knees with his hands up and a guy kind of with a pipe, and he's basically saying, like, hey, I'm not a threat.

[Lane]

I could not validate that. That was a real picture.

[Steven Crowder]

But that's what's making the rounds, at least on the Internet. So that's in reference to that, potentially.

[Lane]

Be careful with what you're sharing. Do not share video game footage. Do not share pictures. Do not do anything until you double, triple, quadruple check. Because people get clicks in times like these.

[Steven Crowder]

They absolutely do. So the question is, why is Iran being so haphazard with its response? And maybe the answer is the command structure doesn't exist anymore.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

We have already told our, you know, army armed forces to be careful about

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

the targets that they choose.

[Steven Crowder]

As a matter of fact, you know, our, you know, militaries, military units are

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

now, in fact, independent and somehow isolated.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

And they are acting based on instructions,

[Steven Crowder]

you know, general instructions given to them in advance. That's not great.

[Lane]

It's like a break. Break glass in case of emergency.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

Yes.

[Lane]

And they broke the glass for a flood. And there's a fire extinguisher.

[Josh Firestein]

It's called standing orders.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah.

[Josh Firestein]

You know, you give orders in case this happens. In case that happens. These are your orders.

[Steven Crowder]

I saw this in Crimson Tide. They were told to fire their nukes.

[Josh Firestein]

I didn't see that.

[Lane]

I know that.

[Josh Firestein]

That's.

[Steven Crowder]

It's a great movie. How can you.

[Josh Firestein]

I know you're supposed to roll Tide, but I don't know about any of that.

[Steven Crowder]

But whatever. Look, if the fighting does continue, we all have to be careful because some sources say that Iran may actually deploy their most ancient weapon. You.

[Josh Firestein]

You don't want to kill some Jews, do you? We can go on a flight. Bomb Israel.

[Steven Crowder]

Is it safe?

[Josh Firestein]

Even families?

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

What?

[Josh Firestein]

Do you trust me?

[Steven Crowder]

Yes. Big if true,

[Josh Firestein]

accurate reporting.

[Steven Crowder]

I don't. I don't.

[Lane]

You know, Aladdin was Chinese.

[Steven Crowder]

Ah, he was a Uyghur.

[Lane]

Yes, I think he was.

[Josh Firestein]

No, he wasn't. He was a street rat.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

Everyone knows that.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah, well. Well, that's on the lamp. Don't rewrite history, okay?

[Lane]

It's a Chinese.

[Steven Crowder]

Look it up. It's Pokemon.

[Josh Firestein]

Racial slur. Street rat.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah.

[Lane]

Can we fact check that research? I want to get an admonishment.

[Steven Crowder]

He was. I've already been admonished by B roll.

[Josh Firestein]

He was the diamond in the rough. Not the diamond miner in the Congolese.

[Lane]

Yeah, he's.

[Steven Crowder]

That's also not China.

[Lane]

None of this.

[Steven Crowder]

Why did we go to Africa?

[Josh Firestein]

Because China does need.

[Steven Crowder]

Okay.

[Lane]

Anyway, sorry for this.

[Steven Crowder]

Anyway, let's move on. The question is really, is any of this necessary? And most importantly, and I think we should always think about this with this context, does it benefit the United States of America? There are a lot of different things in kind of our international stance that will benefit this country, surprisingly. You can't just kind of retreat from the rest of the world and expect everything to go swimmingly well for you and for them. So I understand that there are different challenges with that. But let's just go through a couple of the reasons that this would be in the best interest of the United States and others, and I'll give you a list. Reason number one, Nukes. Iran was pursuing enrichment. And I don't care how many Dave Smiths or anybody else out there that might come along and say they had no desire whatsoever for acquiring nuclear weapons or producing a nuclear weapon.

[Lane]

They wanted a latent nuclear deterrent.

[Steven Crowder]

Nuclear. It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of in my life. Because a latent nuclear deterrent becomes a. I gotta kick your ass so you don't develop a nuclear deterrent. Okay? It's the stupidest thing I've heard of, but prior to Midnight Hammer, and that was the operation, what was it, last June? June, yeah. So last June, where we heard of it, was flawless. There were 972 pounds of 60% enriched uranium. Now just remember, only 2 to 5% enrichment is needed for civilian use.

[Lane]

Energy. And this isn't important because they'll say, well, they weren't. They say they're two weeks away from a weapon. Two weeks away from a Weapon. No, what they're saying is that 60%, which they had major stockpiles of.

[Steven Crowder]

Yes.

[Lane]

And even 20% can reach to 60, can reach to weapons grade in a matter of days and weeks.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah, it can go very, very, very quickly. Now, delivery mechanism, fine, I understand that, but there's a lot of. A lot of reason to be concerned. Like, do you think if they nuked Israel or if they nuked Saudi Arabia or something like that, you think that wouldn't drag everybody in? No, of course.

[Lane]

Do you see proliferation of nukes like you'd never seen, like you couldn't even fathom what.

[Steven Crowder]

What if it's just one we didn't even know existed? How about that? Or how about a dirty bomb? Ever hear that? You ever hear of people? Is there maybe a movie or a show throughout the history of the United States that maybe shows, I don't know, Muslim extremists trying to get a nuke or a dirty bomb into the United States? Yes, of course. Now could we stop it? I hope you want to take that chance, or do you want to make sure it never happens in the first place? And by the way, recent negotiations with Iran, they refuse to stop enrichment. This is pretty simple. They refused to stop enrichment. No matter what we did, they refused. Now, here's a kicker. Some of the negotiations are starting to leak out. Apparently the United States made an offer that would have taken care of all of their we just want this for peaceful use arguments. The United States offered Iran free nuclear energy forever. Forever.

[Lane]

And it's really interesting because they had a budget, they were enriching Isfahan, I think, to 20%. And they said, okay, you can do that, but we're doing that so we can send it to the Tehran Research Reactor, which wasn't hit because that's where we use it for things like making medical research.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah.

[Lane]

And then they looked into it. Not one medicine had ever been developed at the Tehran reaction that you know of.

[Steven Crowder]

They've invented a whole lot of stuff.

[Lane]

It's just. It's all. It's all a sham.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah, absolutely. So. So that. That, in and of itself, right there is a problem. Now, I told you guys on, I think Friday or Thursday, whenever we covered this subject, it looks like President Trump is coming in in just one minute. So again, we'll. We'll bring you over to that when that happens. I said a negotiated deal is preferable to any other scenario here, but you have to have a willing and trusted partner on the other side of the table. And right there, they're not willing. And they're certainly not trusted. Right. And for all of those people out there who I think again, with maybe some best intentions, some not so best intentions, saying like we should just go back to the jcpoa. We had an agreement with them. Oh, really, did we? So Iran was supposed to stop enrichment of uranium at 3.67% and agree to inspections of facilities. We've talked about this before. It was a flawed inspection process. Fine. But it was better than nothing. I'll grant that. Reduce the number of centrifuges. And then here's the problem. It had sunset provisions, 10 to 15 years on their nuclear ambitions, and then we got to do this again. It's like a draft pick that you're trying to lock up into a long term contract, like, nah, I want a short term contract so we can come back to the table and try to bend you over a barrel again. And essentially we opened up massive amounts of revenue to them and we didn't deal with the terror groups or their ballistic missiles in that deal. It was a bad deal for the Dave Smiths of the world. It was a great deal because it kicked the can down the road, kept us out of war for a minute, but it didn't solve the problem. I'd rather solve the problem earlier than later. Call me crazy. Especially when people don't have enough time to make a bomb. That would be ideal.

[Lane]

And there is a lot of political risk in Donald Trump doing something like this because if it fails, he looks like an idiot. And then you can say, well, there was no imminent threat. But this is something you can really only judge decades down the road when you see the fruition of this. Because like kicking, like you said, kicking the can down the road and then someone else has to deal with it and you realize what a massive mess up that was to kick the can down the road. Cuz that can eventually explodes and destroys everything.

[Steven Crowder]

Exactly. I mean, look at what we've done with immigration, kicking the can down the road. Now we have a problem that it's almost impossible to deal with, with deportations because everybody goes, well, no, you can't do that, that's not humane. It creates additional problems. And look, I want to be fair, I do like Dave. I just happen to vehemently disagree with him on this point. If I veer into any personal attacks, that's not my intention. I really want to go after the ideas because I think the ideas don't make sense in the world that we live in. In another world, maybe, just certainly not this one. Reason number two, ballistic missiles. I really don't think they sound like that.

[Josh Firestein]

Applejack just fart.

[Steven Crowder]

What happened? Yeah, so listen, there was a potential nuclear threat down the road. Depending on who you listen to, it could be very soon or very long. It doesn't matter. There was a threat there that we had to deal with one way or the other. But there's a missile threat now, and there's a fear that Iran would use them preemptively. And they do have the capability to make hundreds of these per month. They have a very good program. They don't have a missile. Not good for us. Good for them.

[Josh Firestein]

They don't have a history of preemptively attacking people, though.

[Steven Crowder]

No, but there was a fear that they could. So if they get backed into a

[Lane]

corner, if negotiations absolutely do.

[Steven Crowder]

That's called. They usually did it in response. Right.

[Lane]

The thought. And you can read this from the Axios article. It's really good. Marca Puto put a great thread together on X and what the officials in the White House are saying is if they got to a position where they felt negotiations weren't going their way, then they could go ahead and preemptively use this massive swath of ballistic missiles that they have.

[Steven Crowder]

Right.

[Lane]

And instead of waiting for that moment, let's take out their launchers, let's take out some of their missiles, let's take out their air defense. Let's do all this all now while we're on our front foot. Again, you can agree or disagree. That is a valid thing. That is a valid argument.

[Steven Crowder]

And to your point, Josh, like, I thought most of their ballistic missiles that they have fired were in response, coming from Iran.

[Josh Firestein]

I'm just.

[Steven Crowder]

They funded. No, no, they funded the terror groups to launch rockets into Israel, you know, all the time.

[Josh Firestein]

Well, they've done it, too. I mean, the last decade, for sure.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah, but.

[Josh Firestein]

Yeah, I was.

[Shia LaBeouf]

Never mind.

[Josh Firestein]

I was just trying to make a little joke there.

[Steven Crowder]

I thought it was funny. I see how it is.

[Lane]

Thank you, Lane.

[Steven Crowder]

I mean, they shot at our base when we killed their Solomon guy, so, you know, we'll see. Most of these guys are pretty new on the job, though, because we took most of them out last time in Operation Midnight Hammer, so we'll see how they're doing. Reason number three, terrorism. Just address that just a little bit. But they also refused to address the issue of its terror proxies.

[Lane]

Wouldn't even bring it up.

[Steven Crowder]

Would not even bring it up. And it's Kataib Hezbollah, which killed Americans in Iraq, the Taliban, Hezbollah I guess Hezbollah regular and the Houthis and then also Hamas. I mean these groups are just funded and alive and well and able to shoot, kill, maim, harass other people, Jews because of Iran. How do we forget that these aren't like isolated incidents where this is a fully self funded group in Hamas and the Taliban is just running around, you know, because they have secret stashes of gold everywhere. You know, they're being funded to do this stuff. It's coming from Iran, it's coming from the leadership of Iran. So the question is now or later? Do we do it now and handle the problem or do we feel like we'll be in a better position to handle the problem later?

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

Clip An Iranian regime armed with long range missiles and nuclear weapons would be a dire threat to every American. We cannot allow a nation that raises terrorist armies to possess such weapons. Would allow them to extort the world to their evil will. Not going to let it happen. We're not happening to us and we're not going to let it happen to others. We're undertaking this massive operation not merely to ensure security for our own time and place, but for our children and their children, just as our ancestors have done for us many, many years ago. This is the duty and the burden of a free people. These actions are right and they are necessary to ensure that Americans will never have to face a radical, bloodthirsty terrorist regime armed with nuclear weapons and lots of threats.

[Steven Crowder]

Pretty simple, right? You do have to deal with this problem one way or the other. We tried negotiations, now we're trying the other thing because. And Lane, I think you made this point either in run through, did you come in and say it on air or not about North Korea?

[Lane]

No, I don't think I've made it. But there was that point. I don't know. I think it was Mehdi Hasan as saying that Iran proved the case for more countries to pursue nuclear weapons. And North Korea, Korea was the opposite. But I don't understand that because North Korea is the case to pursue nuclear weapons. What we let happen and we have negotiated and they bought and they just continue to buy time. So in 93 they threaten to leave the non Proliferation Treaty. They don't, Then they come back in, then they leave. Then we have six party talks with the most powerful countries in the world. That lasts for six years all the time. They're basically progressing just a little by little.

[Steven Crowder]

Yes.

[Lane]

Then they lead the six party talks, then they do nuclear tests. Then Trump comes back in and he's like, well maybe we can re. Engage with them. He tries to re. Engage once in Singapore, again in Vietnam. That falls apart. And then by 2022, they're launching more missile tests and ICBMs that are capable of reaching the United States and its entire continental framework. All because they were able to push the can down there or push it, push it, push it a little bit. And now it's a problem that is unsolvable. And you cannot deal with North Korea. They kind of have carte blanche to operate in a lot of ways that could be extremely destructive to not only our troops in the region, the South Koreans, the Japanese. That is what you are dealing with. Now take that out of the hands of a sovereign state actor like Kim, you can call him crazy, but it's a state to a radical Islamist apocalyptic regime. And it's a 10x worse scenario.

[Steven Crowder]

Exactly.

[Lane]

So that I think has to come into the calculation.

[Steven Crowder]

And I think people, I mean, if you're thinking about this rationally and again, you have to take off your. Everything in the world that is wrong is all the fault of the Jews. You have to take that hat off. And I know for some of you it's really hard to get that one off. You wear it all the time. And just think about this rationally and go, hey, do we really want the largest state sponsor of terror to Hezbollah, Taliban, the Houthis, Hamas? Do we want them to possess nuclear weapons like North Korea possesses? Nuclear. How did North Korea get. Oh, wow, this slow march, right, where we try to engage with them. We tried sanctions, we tried to engage economically and give them benefits, more revenue to make sure that they don't do this, and inspections and hey, we non proliferation and hey. And then finally we find ourselves in a. Well, crap, they have a bomb.

[Lane]

And you can't even blame the North Koreans.

[Steven Crowder]

No, they're doing what's in their own best interests.

[Lane]

I mean, it's a calculation they took and I get it.

[Steven Crowder]

But I mean, we've seen this play out before and this is in parallel to what's going on in Iran, except Iran has a little bit different motivations. So I think it's a really, really good point. But also there's some really bad points being made here. Some people say that this is all about China, that this is going to encourage. I mean, the response to Russia, Ukraine was going to make China take Thailand. The response here is going to make. I'm sorry, if they take Thailand, that'd actually be maybe an upgrade for the people in Thailand. Who knows? There's a lot of sex trafficking going on there. You know, never mind. Chinese aren't going to take care of that. So never mind. I take that. Taiwan about. Right? It's not all about China and not about your summer vacation, but it definitely does hurt Beijing.

[Lane]

I think this could tip the scales. It's like, well, this will be for on the. On the fence. Well, it's also not going to be great for Beijing. So let's go ahead and make the.

[Steven Crowder]

It might make sense for us to do that because something that's not great for Beijing is actually good for us.

[Lane]

Yes.

[Steven Crowder]

Typically. I mean, maybe there's some scenarios like a meteor, a lot of it's hitting the earth or you know, something like that. Is it a meteorite at that point, once it enters the earth?

[Lane]

Yeah, because it has right stuff to enter the atmosphere.

[Steven Crowder]

Is that really how you remember it?

[Lane]

Yeah, it's science.

[Steven Crowder]

Got it.

[Josh Firestein]

I always thought it was like there's a meteor and then a little meteor is a meteorite.

[Steven Crowder]

Oh, President Trump is speaking right now. Let's go to that.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

Oh, being here.

[Steven Crowder]

And he's holding a medal of honor ceremony.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

What?

[Steven Crowder]

Mountain Dew. The hell just happened? Okay, so.

[Lane]

And a little bit of chicken fries.

[Josh Firestein]

Honor your.

[Steven Crowder]

And a little bit of Mountain Dew.

[Josh Firestein]

This medal of honor is presented by Mountain Dew.

[Steven Crowder]

Taste the Baja Blast. Chuck Norris's urine. Mountain Dew.

[Josh Firestein]

The war in Iran is code red.

[Steven Crowder]

So is Mountain Dew. Do the Dew. I mean, really running like, you know, Mountain Dew commercials and video game commercials during a war, guys. Bad form. So really, we'll go back to this if he comes back. I don't know if that's on our end, guys, or if that was on their end. Like if something's wrong with our system or what.

[Lane]

Let us know if they start addressing the actual situation in Iran.

[Steven Crowder]

Right. We want to go to it when they address the situation. So let us know for that. So 13% of China's seaborne crude comes from Iran. And there was a recently developed overland route to ship crude and other products. I wonder why everybody's kind of gearing up for this. And they were actively collaborating on arms deals for drones and for missiles. So let me see now if he's doing this because it looks like he's. He might be doing it now. Let's go.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

Both local and overseas and would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America. The purpose of this fast growing missile program was to shield their nuclear weapon development and make it extraordinarily difficult for anyone to stop them from making these highly forbidden by US Nuclear Weapons were complaining. We were the ones that wanted it stopped. But everybody was behind us. They just didn't have the courage to say so.

[Lane]

That's true.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

An Iranian regime armed with long range missiles and nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat to the Middle east, but also to the American people. Our country itself would be under threat and it was very nearly under threat. I was very proud to have knocked out the Iran nuclear deal by President Barack Hussein Obama. That was a horrible, horrible, dangerous document. They would have had nuclear weapons three years ago and they would have used them

[Steven Crowder]

maybe for the reasons we laid out guys that they could potentially get there under these agreements.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

Regime has been attacking the United States and killing Americans. Every time you see someone with missing arms and legs or a face that's been absolutely shattered violently, it was almost certainly caused by an Iran roadside bomb. They were put there by General Soleimani, who was the father of the roadside bomb. Very proudly, he thought. But I terminated him in my first term. This was our last, best chance to strike what we're doing right now and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime. And they are indeed sick and sinister.

[Steven Crowder]

There is debate on whether those roadside bombs were made in Iraq versus Iran, destroying Iran, at least they were.

[Lane]

First 10 years of the war on terror. There's the estimate that about 20% of deaths were attributed directly to Iran.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

Brand new, so pretty good ones they make. Second, we're annihilating their navy. We've knocked out already 10 ships, now it's 10 at the bottom of the sea. Third, we're ensuring that the world's number one sponsor of terror can never obtain a nuclear weapon. Never going to have a. I just

[Steven Crowder]

like them not to sponsoring terror.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

They're never going to have as well a nuclear weapon. They were on the road to getting one legitimately through a deal that was signed foolishly by our country. And finally, we're ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders. And we thought we had a deal, but then they backed out and they came back and we thought we had a deal and they backed out. I said, you can't deal with these people, people. You've got to do it the right way. Today we grieve for the four heroic American servicemembers who have been killed in action and send our love and support to their families in their memory. We continue this mission with ferocious, unyielding resolve to crush the threat this terrorist regime poses to the American people. And a Threat. Indeed it is. We have the strongest and most powerful by far military in the world, and we will easily prevail. We're already substantially ahead of our time projections, but whatever the time is, it's okay. Whatever it takes, we will always. And we have. Right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that. We'll do it. Whatever somebody said today, they said, oh, well, if the President wants to do it really quickly after that, he'll get bored. I don't get bored. There's nothing boring about this. Do you agree with that, Pete? I don't think there's anything, Mr. General. I think there's nothing boring about it. Somebody actually said from the media, I think he'll get bored after about a week or two. No, we don't get bored. I never get bored. If I got bored, I wouldn't be standing here right now. I guarantee you that. To go through what I had to go through.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

We also projected four weeks to terminate the military leadership. And as you know, that was done in about an hour. So we're ahead of schedule there. But please join me in thanking every American service member who bravely. They're standing in harm's way. They really are incredible. And I just want to thank you. We have a lot of them right here. Thank you very much.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

Absolutely.

[Lane]

Thank you.

[Steven Crowder]

By the way, anybody on X right now saying, those people died for Israel, which I have heard over and over and over again, go screw yourselves. They died defending and making sure that this country was safe.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

Thank you, everybody. We have a lot of great service members here with us, too, in this beautiful building. Isn't it beautiful? We're adding on to the building a little bit. We're improving the building.

[Lane]

It's not the time.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

When that comes down right now, you see a very.

[Steven Crowder]

There's someone in the back going, just not right now.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

A year and a half.

[Steven Crowder]

All right, listen, we will. We will come back to this if there's anything that we need to. We'll cover some breaking information here.

[Lane]

What he talked about is like that proverb, and I think it's actually a very. Like you, the father plants the tree knowing he's never going to sit under its shade.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah.

[Lane]

And maybe the tree grows, maybe it doesn't. But that's the people. And I don't want to speak out of turn because I never had the bravery to sign up like other people did. But just because their sacrifices aren't immediately tangible. Now, you have no idea what that's Preventing in the future. And I know that's not the greatest argument, but to say that their lives were lost in vain, I think is a disrespect to what they've done and they decided to do.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah.

[Lane]

Because they did it with agency. And I think they should be, like, honored for. For it and not say. Well, because if you said they did in vain, you're calling these people stupid for signing up.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah.

[Lane]

And I just don't think that's the case.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah.

[Lane]

And I could be off there, but that's my.

[Steven Crowder]

No, I don't think you're off at all.

[Josh Firestein]

It's not in vain. And the men who serve next to them.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah.

[Josh Firestein]

Will ensure that.

[Steven Crowder]

Exactly.

[Josh Firestein]

You know, it's. It's part of your code, you know.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah, absolutely. So one of the things that we said is if this goes well, we. We want to know what day, whatever looks like the end, the final day of this conflict, what does it look like? And, and if it all goes as planned, Kalshi already has odds on who will visit Iran first. That brings us to our Kalshi check in. All right, so prediction markets are all the rage because for a while, these guys have been getting it more right than wrong because that's where people are putting their money. So Raza Pahlavi has 30% chances right now. So that, what is that, the crown prince.

[Lane]

Yeah. The heir to the throne.

[Steven Crowder]

Exactly. So that's a, that's really high odds there. Jared Kushner, 17%, and also Marco Rubio at 15%, who, unfortunately, Marco will find out. He's now the new ayatollah and in charge of the country. As long as it's not Steve Witkoff, I have authority.

[Josh Firestein]

It's Shiatoa.

[Steven Crowder]

So just going back to that, you're sticking with that? You're sticking with your story there?

[Josh Firestein]

Yeah. By the way, I live in.

[Steven Crowder]

And I bring that up because this, that could actually matter to what happens next.

[Lane]

Yeah.

[Steven Crowder]

Right. So if Reza, who does have some popularity, there's debate right now about how popular he is, how much. How many hardliners and supporters, the diaspora

[Lane]

overseas, unclear as to how popular he would be domestically.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah, absolutely. But as you noticed, Stephen's not here today. Stephen was out shooting a super video, and he is actually going to call in as a guest here in just a little bit. So as soon as we have him, I'll bring him up. And we're going to stay wide. We're going to go a little longer today just because there's a lot happening right now. And I want to get some updates for you guys. So we're not going to normally cut in about a minute or two and send you guys on, but we're going to keep going here for just a few more minutes. Really quickly before we go any further. In recognition of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's death, we bring you one that we've been waiting for for a very long time. Time to close. May he rest in peace. The recording of Iran's supreme leader speaking

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

almost 30 years ago has emerged in

[Lane]

which he says he's not qualified for the job.

[Josh Firestein]

Endings and beginnings are ending and beginning now. Time to close. Endings and beginnings are ending and beginning now. Turns out the regime who chanted death

[Steven Crowder]

to America and death to Israel was gifted. Death from America and death from Israel.

[Josh Firestein]

Time to close. Endings and beginnings are ending and beginning now.

[Lane]

The Ayatollah Kamani, the new Hitler of

[Steven Crowder]

the Middle east, absolutely.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

Get you done.

[Josh Firestein]

I know that it's time for things to close. I know that it's time for things to close.

[Steven Crowder]

Been a long time coming on that. And speaking of a long time coming, I'm not sure that this has ever happened before. We have a guest for you. Steven Crowder. Mr. Steven Crowder, can you hear me and see me? I can.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

My face is frozen like this now. I'm glad to. Can you guys hear me? Do I need to go vertical or horizontal?

[Steven Crowder]

You're good right there. Stay in the gram mode. Let's go.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

All right. Are we wide? We're not on premium yet, right?

[Steven Crowder]

No, we are still wide.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

No. So, like, here's the thing. I can say what I was doing. I was. I was riding along, actually, with ice this morning. So I've been up since 3. We got an Ms. All on camera. We got an Ms. 13 member, we got a child pornographer, and then a couple of hunderance. The hell's the difference? But that'll be. That'll be happening here the next couple of days. So I haven't been on top of the news, but correct me if I'm wrong here, they appointed a new interim ayatollah and then they killed him super fast as well.

[Steven Crowder]

Yes. It's unclear, but that is some of the reporting right now.

[Josh Firestein]

That is the reporting in that so fast.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

You know, somewhere in Iran right now, there's an imam going, no, no.

[Josh Firestein]

Apparently they've got three people that are currently in charge, one of them being Chief justice of the Supreme Court Court, a Guardian Council member and president, in quotes, President Massoud Pezakastakistan.

[Steven Crowder]

Well, that's according to Al Jazeera. So, yeah, it's one of those things, like you don't want to be next up on the list.

[Josh Firestein]

It's like they're presenting.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

That's the sound of all those people you just named dying.

[Josh Firestein]

Yeah, those people saw the Al Jazeera

[Steven Crowder]

and they're like, no, no, no,

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

no, no. I mean, it's one of those things where, you know, this was. I was glued to my set on Friday. I wonder if like the black belt people, like, if they're, if they're going to kill themselves. But I, but, but I don't know, like, you know, I've talked about this with, with Iran. If you look at. Even before the first time, I don't offer a super strong emphatic opinions. And the reason for that is Josh made this point. I know come from, you know, quite a few people in the military. There is certain information that we don't know, that we can't know, that we rightfully shouldn't know. And so I remember, I said, well, should we do it? I think there's a valid case. Depends on how it's done. If someone would have said, look, there's going to be a. Where they will ayatollah his whole bloodline, rewind command and most of their counter, their significant counter striking capabilities, and it will happen within the span of hours. I'd be like, well, of course, absolutely. You should take that opportunity. But I didn't know it at the time. So here we are. I know things could go sideways. I don't think they're going to go as sideways as people think. But, but it's just so, like, I think if you're a dictator in the world right now, you must be going like, shit, can you do that to me? Like you can just do stuff.

[Lane]

That's a really good point because he's meeting with Xi Jinping next month, so I don't think that's coincidental.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah, no, back to back. And by the way, Steven, are you sitting like, are you at like a hostel sitting under a bunk bed? What the hell is that above your head?

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

It is a bunk bed.

[Donald Trump (via speech)]

Literally. What the heck? Look at this.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

This is, look at this. Look at that. Is Tool man up there. Look at this. It's an Airbnb. And we were just going along with Ice and they were doing unbelievable work. But yeah, this, this whole thing too. Like, I, I don't know if you guys did this today because again, I was, I was, I was on the road Getting very car sick. So you'll see in the footage where whenever I. I talk with him, I'm like, because we were just speeding down the freeway. But it's. We need to mean check stuff, because you'll have some people go, like, wait a second. So we attacked Iran because they have nukes, but we won't attack Russia because they have nukes, dummy. Iran doesn't have nukes. No one said that. They are at that point where they are, they would have the ability to. Same thing with Xi Jinping. Right? Do you want Iran to be a power like China? Like Russia with nukes? Potentially. So really just the discussion comes down to, hey, do that. At some point, Iran is going to be a problem for multiple members of the free world. If the answer is yes. Okay. It just comes down to, at what point in time do you do something about it? And really, the answer to me is the most opportune time with the least amount of resources and our lives lost. Seems like we're there.

[Steven Crowder]

So.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

And I get that people may not agree with it. The point I was making too, on Twitter was not, look, we can have a discussion if we should do this or not. Foreign intervention, that's a legitimate discussion. That used to be simply a policy difference, but people saying this is just a war for the Jews, like, well, tell that to every single diaspora of Iranians.

[Lane]

Tell.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

Like, you can say what you want. It's not our job to go in and rescue them.

[Steven Crowder]

Sure.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

But all the Iranians across the globe are not paid by the Jews. Many people have a vested interest in this whole. I don't even know what you call it, a country, this debacle going down. So hopefully it puts some clarity on that.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah, the state funder of terrorism throughout the world. So one question that I had for you, I know you said you were watching on Saturday. I don't know if you had the same response that I did, but at first it's like, okay, a little bit of trepidation because I want to make sure that our men and women in uniform are taken care of, that as many lives are protected as possible. I want this to go well. But then I saw the response, and they didn't just attack Israel, which was what they did last time, or shoot something at one of our bases. They attacked multiple countries. Were you as surprised by that as I was?

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

Well, no. I mean, and I also wasn't surprised that people said, like, oh, it's clearly just Mossad doing it. So they have an excuse. No, they were in talks. You realize we weren't the only ones in talks. I'm sure Lane was talking about this with Iran. A lot of these other countries were. They thought they were negotiating in good faith and Iran is a petulant child. So they're just going like, we're going to wreck it all. So it really is 101 in how to get everyone in the world to hate you, to have no allies.

[Steven Crowder]

Well, they attacked a French naval base. What did the French do?

[Lane]

I mean, that's one's fair.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

And I was watching CNN all day. And I tell you what, all of the talking points that you see from the left, it's the exact same talking points from the Black pill, right? In other words, Ro Khanna's talking points are the same as Thomas Massie, are the same as, you know, whatever the Dave Smith stuff. They were even, remember that one, they go, yeah, here's your freedom. Killing 56 or 60 children, you know, with some. Well, it turns out that Iran had a rocket that, as best I know right now, again, I've been out of the loop. That didn't quite work. It had a failure upon launch and they killed their own people. But the issue is, hey, the same people, remember Tucker Carlson got offended at Mike Huckabee because Mike Huckabee said that, that Israel goes to great lengths to try and avoid. And he said, and I don't know any nation that goes those lengths, including Arnold. He goes, well, now you've offended me because I'm American. Now you're saying that America's bad. It's like, but you, all of you people were so ready and willing to say that America was killing children. Do you know who knows that there's going to be civilian casualties? The Iranian people. And they are dancing and celebrating in the streets. So the issue is like, can we get back to a policy difference in the approach and not say that anyone who thinks the Ayatollah dead, this regime out of power is only in the interest to the Jews. When people say, how does it benefit the United States? First off, before I get to that, you know, be the funniest thing ever. The funniest thing ever. Because, you know, the Congress are saying we're going to bring them up about the illegal war and ask them, if I was Donald Trump, you know what I would do? I'd say, yeah, yeah, bring me up. And they'd say, when was war officially declared? I would answer, 1979. 1979, when they took. And they officially declared war on the United States. And they never, they never Undeclared war and walk out. Literally. That's your answer. We have been at war with Iran since 1979 to some varying degree. So people acting like this is new. I don't know how many, Josh, thousands of Americans include their. The last several decades. Like, yeah, it's just, I just, I'm always. I'm amazed at the black pill. Right. Or the talking points of the left. They both say it's an illegal war. They both say it's a war for Israel. They both say he doesn't have the power to do so. And other complaints, you know, like, well, if you can, you can just take out the Ayatollah. But why can't he deal with the ICE protesters in Miami or, sorry, in Minneapolis? It's like, well, for better or worse, when it relates to foreign policy, that's as close as the President actually does have to monarch powers. He can kind of. He can kind of any dictator. He wants civilians here in the States. That's where he's really more of a figurehead in the power rest with the legislature. All this shows us is when you don't have to go through lower courts and you don't have mayors and governors, you know, basically usurping you that you can be relatively effective whether you agree with the policy or not. But. So the new ayatollah is allegedly killed, like, in record time. I do have that. Right.

[Steven Crowder]

But, yeah, the. They'll be looking for a few understudies potentially. But it's reported.

[Lane]

If he's not now, probably soon.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah. Reports are claiming that he has been killed in.

[Josh Firestein]

They're making it so that that position is not going to be a very highly wanted position.

[Steven Crowder]

Yeah. No, why would you. Yeah, why would you do that, by the way? I don't know. We read this quote. I don't know if you saw it from President Trump. He was talking about sinking nine of their naval vessels and more are going to be on the way. And we've struck their base. And he goes, but other than that, Iran's Navy's having a great day. Like, oh, this guy, he just throws his tags in. You're breaking up just a little bit there. Sorry.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

Oh, sorry. There you go.

[Steven Crowder]

You're good. Go ahead now. Okay.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

They said there was a big announcement, like, we're going to close the Strait of Hormuz. It's like, how about, no, you're not? Like, how about, no, you're not? But that got reposted everywhere. Like, you can check the traffic. It looks pretty open to me. They can't do anything about it. And when people say, how does this benefit the United States? The same people saying, this will create energy instability. It's like, well, hold on a second. You're mad that he inherited a war with Russia, Ukraine, and he wasn't able to end it. Putin is not coming to the table. Not going to negotiate, huh? Let's think about this for a second. Venezuela, all right, 80% of their. I think it's 80% link. In fact, check me. Of their. Their energy was going to China. You look at Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, how important that is to Russia. It's almost like he's pulling other levers where not only is it beneficial to Americans, but people might be more likely to come to the table. And instead, people just go, it's all bad. Why, why, why don't we have, you know, school lunches or whatever? Like, I guess just everything is bad. And the fact that the Ayatollah is dead and his understudy is dead, we're just supposed to go, this is another forever war? It's not, though. It's not.

[Steven Crowder]

No. And it's reasonable to bring up some. We said this at the outset, and I kind of went after Dave's ideas on this, and I said, it's not a personal attack. I think Dave's a smart guy, but I really disagree with him on this. Like, you can bring up these questions and say, I don't want to get into this. I want to make sure we understand what the last day looks like. I want to understand what our objectives are and why we're doing this. And please lay that out, Mr. President. But what Dave chose to do was to post traitor. That's what he posted. One word, traitor. Now he's posted other stuff, too, but that shows you his thinking. He doesn't care about any of this. It's like, no, listen, Traitor. You can't go do that ever, ever, ever. It doesn't matter if it's in our interest or not. That's not America First.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

The same people who. One criticizes America. Well, just. Let's just. Let's just see. Are you retweeting and reposting every piece of propaganda from Iranian media? And we're seeing that out there right now. Yeah, I know that the, the, the, the call is choppy, but thank you for holding down the floor and I don't know tomorrow, but you. By the way, I was ready for a flashbang. Two of them.

[Steven Crowder]

You got hit by a flashbang?

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

Two of them. Two flashbangs Very nice.

[Lane]

So I didn't get hit.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

I didn't get hit.

[Steven Crowder]

Did you try to pick it up?

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

What's funny is they told us that. No, I couldn't figure, but they said. They said there's gonna be a flashbang. And they said. They coached us before, and they briefed us. They said. And so when you hear the flashback after that, if you hear multiple, then that means there's return fire and get down. Well, they threw in two flashbangs. But here's the thing. The first flashbang wasn't that loud. You'll even see I have a GoPro. You'll see, like. But then the. The second flashbang was so much louder. You'll see the GoPro go. Oh, shit.

[Steven Crowder]

Where?

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

It turns out they were at the same place. They were two different batches. I guess there's no quality control to flashbangs. I mean, one was like 18 times louder. I was sure they were shooting at us.

[Steven Crowder]

Nice.

[Guest (Steven Crowder)]

But, yeah, it was a child pornographer. And. Well, you'll be able to see. She said she didn't speak English, but I pulled a magic trick, and we found out pretty quickly she could speak English. It's just a level of evil. Yeah, she was like. She was like, no English. And I was like, I don't speak English. I said, what would possess a mother to take pornographic pictures of her children? And then she turned to the other guy. She said she would rather speak with a lawyer. Let me guess. In Spanish. Yes, in Spanish. I was like, you speak the king's English, you fat Honduran bitch.

[Steven Crowder]

Yes. Well, good job doing the work. You are a little choppy right now, so we will. We'll let you go. But we look forward to seeing that video and Godspeed on your travel getting back. Enjoy. Put some ice on it. You'll be fine. Steven Crowder, ladies and gentlemen. All right, so we've gone a little bit long here today. Right now, we're going to go ahead and go to Rumble Premium. If you're not a member right now, sign up for Rumble Premium. Rumble Premium is Mud Club. Mud Club is rumble premium. $99 annually gets you this hand etched girl, earthy mug, perfect for coffee, but you get all of the other content. You get ad free experience. If you want to try it for $9.99 and see if we can prove our worth to you every month and bring you more clear communications from cell phones in the year 2026, please make sure you join right now. Otherwise, we will see you in Mud Club. Now do it. Hit it.